Any questions that Yohan Blake raised by beating thedefending 100-meter Olympic champion during the Jamaican trials a month agowere emphatically answered with the second-fastest time in history yesterday.
And it leaves Bolt one step away from achieving his ultimategoal -- becoming a "living legend" by defending his Olympic 100- and200-meter titles.
Next up he'll race in Tuesday's heats of the 200 meters, hisfavorite event.
"Right now I need this to become a legend. That's mymain event. That's what I do. I'm not going to let myself down," Boltsaid.
"When Yohan Blake beat me, twice, it woke me up, openedmy eyes. It was like he come, knocked on my door and say, 'It's an Olympicyear, are you ready?'," Bolt said.
Question answered. Bolt easily won the defining race of theLondon Olympics.
He was slow out of the blocks but once he got his giantstride going he was unbeatable once again, leaving Blake and 2004 Olympicchampion Justin Gatlin in his wake.
"I knew it was going to be like this. There wasn't a doubtin my mind it was going to be like this," Bolt said after setting anOlympic record of 9.63 seconds, just .05 of a second outside his world mark.
World champion Blake equaled his personal best with 9.75 andGatlin took bronze in 9.79.
The time was the second fastest in history and it showed themark of the man that some said he didn't look as imperious as he once was.
Unlike his showboating and coasting during a thenworld-record run at Beijing four years ago, Bolt was all business.
He was not even distracted when a fan threw a plastic bottletoward the start when the sprinters were in the blocks, about a second beforethe start of the race.
